Bush to Order 45-Day Spending Freeze for About 100 Federal Programs : Finance: It will be the first step in the President’s $4-billion, budget-cutting plan. The move is intended to force Congress to act on tax legislation.

President Bush plans to impose a 45-day spending freeze on some 100 federal programs today in an effort to regain the offensive in his battle with Congress over spending.

Presidential advisers said the move, to be announced in a speech this afternoon that will be one of several addresses Bush will make on economic issues in the next few weeks, will be designed to put Congress on the defensive over tax and budget legislation.

The disclosure of the President’s plans came as a joint House-Senate conference committee worked late into the night Thursday on a compromise version of a Democratic tax bill in time to get it to Bush today, his deadline for passage of the legislation.

Bush has promised to veto the legislation because it would finance tax cuts for the middle class by raising levies on the rich--a move he opposes vigorously. But some strategists fear the veto will leave him vulnerable to Democratic claims that he killed the tax cut.

It was not immediately clear, however, how well Bush’s new strategy might work. White House officials said the 45-day freeze would save about $4 billion. But the sum is relatively small when compared to a $400-billion deficit.

Uncertainty also remains over whether the President can legally freeze spending in such fashion. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said that, while the issue is “not clear-cut,” the White House believes “we have the legal authority.”

Fitzwater said the programs slated for the freeze would include everything from traditional public works projects to “far-out” research proposals the White House believes would bring public derision to anyone who challenges the cuts.

Administration sources said that the cuts are most likely to affect such programs as community service block grants and new public housing construction, two federal programs Bush has said should be terminated.

The move is expected to mark another escalation in the confrontation between the White House and Congress over pocketbook issues, almost certainly intensifying what already was expected to be a bitter battle over which side is responsible for the nation’s economic ills.

White House officials said Bush will most likely impose additional spending freezes in coming weeks to keep putting pressure on Congress. The President proposed substantial spending cuts in January, but has expressed disappointment with the lawmakers’ response.

The new White House plan would mark a sweeping use by Bush of a provision in the 1974 Budget Act permitting him to withhold current spending temporarily while Congress considers his requests that it rescind appropriations approved earlier.

White House officials said one important aspect of the strategy is that it would force Congress to vote separately on each program Bush is targeting. “We’re talking pork barrel here and Congress is going to have to go on record with each one,” one official said.

Legal experts in Congress noted that Bush does not have unilateral authority to prevent permanently the spending of funds appropriated by Congress. But they said there is little doubt that he has the power to take temporary action.

The battle over the tax-cut legislation is expected to peak today with the two houses of Congress voting on the conference committee version of the legislation--assuming that the panel completes its work.

Bush had proposed a combined tax-cut and spending-reduction plan in his State of the Union address in January and asked lawmakers to act on it by today. Instead, Democrats passed their own plan, cutting taxes for the middle class while raising them for the rich.

Bush has since pledged to veto the legislation, saying he opposes a tax cut of any kind. Democrats, who clearly would not be able to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override him, have hoped to blame him for “killing” the tax reductions.

As a result, the tax issue is expected to remain an issue for the remainder of the election campaign.

Despite the push by the Democratic leadership, the tax-cut legislation has received a lukewarm greeting by rank-and-file Democrats, many of whom have opposed the measure because they fear it would increase the federal budget deficit and send interest rates soaring again.

The conference committee version of the legislation is being crafted by Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The move would mark a new descent into confrontation between the White House and Congress and presage what is expected to be a bitter spring of claims and counterclaims about who is most responsible for the nation’s economic state.

Reaching the Bush deadline climaxes a two-month-long White House campaign aimed at spotlighting attention on what Bush contends is a do-nothing Congress. But it also may leave him empty-handed. Some advisers now believe it has done him more harm than good.

“You don’t rant and rave if you can’t follow through,” one GOP adviser said of the Bush ultimatum. “Have we backed ourselves into a corner? You bet we have.”

Bush’s own proposals have been subjected to a series of embarrassing defeats and White House officials acknowledged that the decision to impose the spending freeze marked an attempt to divert attention from what has become a deep frustration.

Charles Black, a Bush campaign adviser, defended the decision to impose the deadline as a step that succeeded in serving as a reminder that the President “had a plan.” He said it would now allow the White House to put the ball “back in Congress’ court.”

But the view most often expressed in private on Capitol Hill and within the Bush camp was that the tactic had sown little but division.

By imposing the deadline, a House Democratic strategist contended, Bush created the conditions that heightened public attention and then was unable to get his own plan through Congress.

“We’re not looking so impo’tant right now,” one Bush aide agreed, cultivating a deliberate accent. “It’s more like impotent.”

The existence of the deadline also put a considerable strain on efforts of both the House and the Senate to hew to their individual legislative agendas, forcing both houses to revamp their earlier schedules and to spend substantial time considering the tax legislation.

Particularly hard-hit was the House, whose leadership also had to contend with the fast-spreading scandal involving the House bank. “People around here went to a great deal of trouble to get this (tax) bill through,” one House official said.

House strategists said work will begin next week on major legislation that has been set aside during the tax battle, from a major education bill to health insurance and jobs legislation.